Before We Get Started

For our discussion today we will be using the sermon series discussion guides. If you would like to follow along you can access this discussion guide on the website at mosaicchurchaustin.com and then select “community group resources” in the menu options.

Prayer

Because the main goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for, or  anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together.

This Week’s Topic

Today, we begin a new series titled, Reversal. We will be taking some time to walk through the Gospel account of Luke. Luke was an historian who set out to document the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the impact it had on the world of his day. What we see in Luke’s account is that when Jesus gets involved in the life of a person, things get turned upside-down and inside-out. Jesus brings about a reversal of everything we thought we knew.

Today’s Topic

Investigating

Discussion Questions

From what you know about Jesus and the Gospel, what is one aspect of God’s Kingdom that you’d say is counter cultural? 

‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:1-4‬ ‭

“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”

There isn’t many biographies or historical accounts written about leaders, or people history would deem important from antiquity. So, what might we take away from the fact that a poor carpenter who grew up in anonymity and only ministered for 3 years of his adult life before being murdered on a cross, had multiple accounts written about him within 50 years of his death, and many more since then?

Why does Luke say he is writing his account of the life of Jesus? How, then, should we read this account?

Why might someone dismiss or scoff at Luke’s historical and eye-witness account of the things Jesus did?

What does the fact that much of Luke’s account comes from people who knew, listened to, and walked with Jesus mean to you?

‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:30-33‬ ‭

“And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

According to Luke’s account of the life of Jesus, what would you say Jesus came to do, both in the world, and in the lives of individuals?

How has He done that in your life?

Ken Wytsma, Pursuing Justice: The Call to alive and Die for Bigger Things

“The kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom. It beckons us to gamble all, to trust radically, to come and die so that we might live–to give our lives away. Giving life away is a paradox. It’s losing so we can win. It’s giving so we can receive. It’s risking for security. It’s faith. The kingdom of God means living that tension.”

If you are a follower of Jesus, how have you seen things in your life (perspectives, attitudes, beliefs, actions) reversed in your own life because of your relationship with Jesus?

What other areas of your life might Jesus want to bring about a reversal?

What does God want for you, more than anything He wants from you?

How does the Gospel prove that to us?

Closing Thought

How does the Truth of the Gospel enable that reversal to happen?